Archive for May, 2014

Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson is like the proverbial guy trying to change a tire on a car going 100 miles per hour. There’s just so much that can go wrong. Despite generally favorable reviews – and already talk of a contract extension (which seems premature) – and his adroit handling of the most […]

When Mayor Wharton first announced his Clean and Green Initiative, I was excited that our community was taking a common sense approach to economic development through environmental projects, something the Sierra Club wholeheartedly supports. At a January press conference at the Central Library announcing the initiative, the Mayor spoke about one such project where the […]

By Jimmie Covington A new census estimate that shows a Memphis population loss of 1,106 in the 12 months that ended last July 1 is probably more positive than the actual situation, the pattern of the city’s population change in recent decades indicates. According to historical data, people have been steadily moving out of the […]

It is hard to think of a public agency that has had a more devastatingly negative impact on our community that the MPO. That’s the Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the wonks among us; however, the vast majority of our citizens have never even heard of it despite the incredible damage that […]

From The Atlantic: A new survey shows the youngest bloc of voters is decidedly progressive, nervous about money—and not especially energized about voting. Two months ago, Derek Thompson walked readers through the results of a huge new survey by the Pew Research Center on Millennials and their attitudes and opinions. As he noted, this generation, […]

Note: The Citizens to Preserve Overton Park and Get Off Our Lawn (GOOL) are raising $4,000 in support of the upcoming shuttle trial from the Overton Square parking garage to Overton Park. The amount includes the $2,000 that the Memphis Zoo had promised but has since revoked. Please contribute at https://www.ioby.org/project/overton-park-shuttle It’s always uncomfortable – if […]

I met Frank McRae 49 years ago. He was 34 years old and I was in high school. I introduced him to Bob Dylan and he introduced me to the social gospel, and it was a convergence that transfigured my whole life. Frank was minister of the Methodist Church on the town square in Collierville, […]

This is an outstanding post, and it should sound familiar. Here, it’s just as easy to substitute MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) for DOT: “Your city’s gaining population? Build more roads. People are driving more? Build more roads. Your city is losing population? Build more roads. And this in a city with 25% of its population […]

“Here’s the secret for talking with Henri Brooks,” our friend advised. “Just pretend like it’s 1968 and everything will be fine.” It was years ago and we had asked him about Ms. Brooks because he was a long-time friend of the former state legislator, current county commissioner, and aspiring Juvenile Court Clerk. These days, like […]

We recently realized that we often treat news about the Memphis economy the same way we treated news about the War in Vietnam decades ago. We tend to ignore much of it. In the late 1960s and 1970s, news about the war was so often the play stories in the upper right corner of the […]

From Governing: This is part of an ongoing series called Finance 101 that explains the basics of public finance for public officials. All states and many municipalities are legally required to pass balanced budgets each year. But a budget that is balanced isn’t always one representing a healthy spending plan. At the most basic level […]

From Atlantic Cities: One of the biggest challenges facing cash-strapped mass transit agencies is how to improve service without raising costs to the public. Many reach the conclusion it can’t be done and opt for an either-or approach: either increase fares or decrease service. Which makes the massive expansion that Houston has planned for its […]

There’s yet another study – this one by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – that concludes that differences in state taxes “have little to no effect on whether and where people move.” The primary conclusions from the research is that 1) relatively few Americans relocate from state to state and when they do, […]

From Huffington Post: By Greg Leroy Somebody forgot to send Toyota the memo — and it’s messing with Rick Perry’s script. When a politician gives your company a large sum of taxpayer money in the name of jobs, you’re supposed to give him lots of credit — even if, as is almost always the case, […]

Flexibility can enable a city, or country, to respond to changing social and economic pressures. It can be difficult to build this sort of resilience into a community, but doing so could enable Memphis to provide its growing numbers of millennials with a more flexible workstyle and a better range of opportunities. What is a […]

In this part of the country, we often wrestle with the idea of teenage and college age sexuality, even as Southern states are among the U.S. leaders in teenage pregnancy. Sex Week at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was a case in point. It recently sent some of the state’s Tea Party legislators into a rage because […]

From City Parks Blog: By Kathy Blaha The Cully neighborhood is considered the most “parks-deficient” neighborhood in Portland. Citywide, 40 percent of residents live within a quarter-mile of a park. In Cully, only 24 percent do, with almost 23 percent of neighborhood children living in poverty. For over twenty years, Cully residents set their sights […]

These Are The 10 Most Affordable Places In Tennessee From the Smoky Mountains to Graceland, Tennessee has a lot to offer, but which places provide the most affordable life? We’ve written about Tennessee before on the Movoto Real Estate Blog, but one thing we know house hunters are concerned about is an area’s overall affordability. […]

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About Smart City Memphis

This is Smart City Consulting's blog and its purpose is to connect the dots and provide perspective on events, issues, and policies shaping Memphis and its future. Smart City Memphis was named one of the most intriguing blogs in the U.S. by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change; The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal wrote that "Smart City Memphis provides some of the most well-thought-out thinking about Memphis' past, present, and future you'll find anywhere," and the Memphis Flyer said: "This incredibly well-written blog sets out to solves the city's ills - from the mayor to MATA - with out-of-the-box thinking, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ideas. If you have questions, submissions, or ideas for posts, please email the blog's editor, Tom Jones, at tjones@smartcityconsulting.com.